


Like wood in a raging fire

by erciareyes



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Nursey is a sap, Quidditch!AU, a lot of teasing, talking about feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 12:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8979715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erciareyes/pseuds/erciareyes
Summary: This shouldn’t have happened.Dex hasn’t decided how it came to this, what he’d been thinking or when exactly he’d decided that it was a good idea, but it shouldn’t have happened.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quidhitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quidhitch/gifts).



> Hi there,
> 
> so, I hope this little fanfic will brighten your day a bit. I am sorry it comes so late and turned out rather short. I actually started another fanfic, a Sense8!AU, first and had to replan a days or so ago when I realized that it would turn out a bit (actually, a lot) longer than expected and I wouldn't be able to ever finish that one in time. I still hope you'll enjoy this piece of fluff, I tried my best to do at least one of your prompts.
> 
> Have a wonderful holiday time & I hope you'll get some nice food & presents to enjoy. Merry Christmas. <3
> 
> Love,  
> Rosie :)
> 
> Oh, and of course, a very big thank you to my beta Amanda (nerdyderekhale)! You did such wonderful work in such a short frame of time. Thank you so much <3

This shouldn’t have happened. 

Dex hasn’t decided how it came to this, what he’d been thinking or when exactly he’d decided that it was a good idea, but it shouldn’t have happened. 

It’s not like he hates Nursey, he doesn’t but he can’t walk past him without a discussion just erupting out of nowhere. One minute he’s absent-mindedly walking round the corridors, the next one he’s fighting with Nursey about transfiguration regulations in the middle of a busy hallway while people walk by shaking their heads.

He doesn’t remember one single conversation they’ve had that didn’t turn into bickering and teasing each other. Maybe that’s just how they were supposed to be, maybe it’s because they were in opposing houses or whatever. Maybe they just weren’t meant to get along. As much as Dex hates that thought, it could be true. 

Still, he doesn’t hate Nursey. What he feels isn’t even close to hate, it’s closer to a weird kind of crush than anything else and he hates admitting to it. He hates how Nursey’s stupid, fluffy, perfect hair bounces when he walks, he hates the way Nursey smiles and the way he talks like all his words are poems that need to be told. He hates how all of that makes his stomach flutter because he and Nursey don’t get along, it’s a hopeless crush. 

Still, it shouldn’t have gone this way. He’d never wanted this to happen. 

The scenes from the Quidditch field play in his head again, the way Nursey’d tried to playfully throw him off his broom by flying as close as humanly possible next to him, the way he’d tried to distract him from the game. Dex had told him to piss off, go play somewhere else and leave him the fuck alone. 

_Go fly around the pitch for a bit before I throw some potion to make you real dizzy and stuff at you next time_ , Dex had said and he knows it wasn’t his best line, far from it actually but then again he hadn’t sat on a broom to have some good one-liners. He’d been there to play Quidditch.

Quidditch was the only thing he was proud of, the only thing that he wanted to play. The rest of his classes didn’t suck but they weren’t as important as Quidditch and since the Slytherin team had lost the last game already, Dex mind was set on winning this one against Hufflepuff. 

And then he’d seen the bludger coming at him and things had taken a turn of their own. He’d just done his job, if one looked at it loosely, but if Dex is honest with himself he knows he’d done it on purpose. He’d thrown the bludger into Nursey’s direction...and had hit him right off his broom.

The feeling of watching Nursey fall, thinking he’d crash onto the ground like a dead weight, is still stuck in his head. He was sure Nursey would die, was sure he’d killed him out of spite, out of wanting to win a stupid game and Quidditch had never seemed any less important to him than in that moment. He’d shot forward and towards Nursey, trying to reach him but in no way would he have been able to ever catch up to him. 

He’d definitely gone too far this time and he knows it. 

Which is why he’s sitting in the hospital wing, next to the bed in which Nursey is lying. There are some bandages and patches around his head and his right shoulder, he looks like he hasn’t slept in days and Dex doesn’t really look any better. 

He’s been sitting in the chair next to the bed for hours, waiting for Nursey to wake up, watching him breathe. Madam Pomfrey had told him that it could take a few hours for Nursey to wake, that he should go and get something to eat or some sleep at least but Dex didn’t want Nursey to wake up alone in the hospital wing. 

He nearly jumps out of his chair when Nursey’s eyes flutter open sleepily. Nursey breathes in sharply, his hands flex against the sides of the bed like he’s in pain.

Dex calls for Madam Pomfrey immediately, asking Nursey if he’s doing alright but he doesn’t get any answers, instead watching as Madame Pomfrey checks in on him, makes him drink some medicine.

“I didn’t mean to hit you in the head,” Dex says as soon as Madame Pomfrey is out of the room. “I thought you’d duck or something but you weren’t paying attention.” 

“Are you saying this is my fault now?” Nursey mumbles a bit sleepily and blinks.

It sounds like Nursey’s accusing him but there’s a slight grin on his lips indicating otherwise. 

“That’s not what I meant. I just...I don’t know, you were probably reciting some poem in your head or something and I didn’t realize you weren’t looking my way. I thought I’d be fun to...I don’t know...throw you off track a bit.”

“So instead you threw me off my broom, sounds like a fun plan, you’re right.”

He does look a bit angry now and Dex shrugs, unsure. If he was honest, he should have thought about the possibility of things going wrong before throwing a bludger right at Nursey but he really hadn’t. 

All things aside it was still his fault that Nursey was lying in a bed in the hospital wing right now and he knows that the number of people that have died during a Quidditch game is very, very low but still...he can’t forget the second he realized what would inevitably happen, the crushing fear he’d felt when he’d seen Nursey go down motionless. He’s glad that Professor McGonagall had been aware enough to slow down the fall in time. 

Dex squeezes his fingers into a fist and tries to stop himself from thinking. He doesn’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if she didn’t...if no one had stopped Nursey from falling in time…

“Hey, I’m still alive, right?” Nursey says, shaking Dex out of his thoughts. 

Dex shrugs. “Yeah, but you’re hurt.” 

“It doesn’t hurt that much anymore, just a little crack. Besides...if...if I’d have fallen...at least I’d be out of your way, right? I mean, you hate me anyway, there’s no reason for you to feel sorry.” 

For a second Dex feels like someone slapped him across the face. Nursey’s words sink into his brain, slowly but surely. Nursey think that he hates him for real, that he meant everything he said and swallows hard.

“I...I don’t hate you, Nurse. I don’t-” he gasps and then swallows down his words. 

“No, it’s okay. We’re polar opposites and there’s no way one can get along with every person they meet, right? We don’t get along, it’s fine, no big deal.” 

Nursey’s shoulders sink down a bit more, he looks sad despite his words and Dex blinks at him. He doesn’t know what to say to this, doesn’t know how to make Nursey believe that he doesn’t really hate him, that it’s not even dislike anymore but something...else.

“I really don’t hate you, okay? I know I say some pretty mean things to you from time to time but I don’t mean them, I didn’t...I didn’t think about it but I did not mean them at all,” Dex stutters. “I...I thought it was the only way you’d talk to me.” 

He breathes in deeply and looks down at his hands again, fiddling with them nervously. Dex can feel Nursey’s eyes on him, feels his gaze burning on his face and he knows he’s turning red.

“You...what?” Nursey asks. “That doesn’t make any sense at all, Poindexter.” 

“Yes! Yes it does!” Dex shoots back and without wanting it he’s going back into defensive mode, his fists by his side. “We’ve never had a solid conversation without teasing each other up and down. I wanted to talk to you but you always started teasing me about something in front of your friends and then when I realized I couldn’t stop thinking about you and your stupid hair-”

“My stupid hair? What the fuck, Dex? My hair isn’t-” Nursey starts and Dex cuts him off immediately.

“Stop interrupting me, Nurse, I’m not done yet. You always do that. You never...you never give me a chance to talk to you like a normal person? You always drive me up the wall and you frustrate me because you make me feels things and I don’t know what to fucking do about that.” 

He stops talking and Nursey just stares at him for a few seconds, blinking like he didn’t understand a word Dex just said. 

Dex feels the frustration come back instantly. He wants Nursey to say something, anything at all because opening up like this feels like torture when the comeback is nothing but silence. 

“You feel _things_? What kind of things? What does that even mean?” Nursey asks, still visibly confused but there’s an underlying curiosity. 

“I don’t know, that’s the problem. I...I...I can’t describe it, you’re the poet, not me. I don’t do feelings, I don’t know how to say what I think.” 

Dex scratches the back of his head and stares at the floor, it feels like he’s cutting himself open and all Nursey does is sit and watch.

“Your smile makes butterflies dance in the pit of my stomach and I try to say funny things to feel like that more often but all it does is make you spit fire back at me. I want to say that it’s not worth the effort, that it’s not worth the pain but the way your skin turns scarlet is even more beautiful than all the freckles that make you the masterpiece I see every day.” 

Nursey’s voice floats through the room, strokes his ears like velvet and it sounds so different that Dex has to look up to make sure it really is Nursey speaking but there he is, reciting poetry and looking directly at him.

Dex’ heartbeat picks up a notch when he hears about the freckles and he realizes that Nursey isn’t trying to help Dex explain his feeling but instead is telling him his own. Dex’s mouth feels dry, he can’t keep his eyes off Nursey now that he’s realized what he’s doing. 

“Sometimes I ask myself how I could possibly turn your hate into something else but it seems like nothing works, so I keep adding wood to your raging fire because I’d rather feel your flames on my skin than see them go out in smoke. What a masochistic way to love, I smile as I throw myself into your embers to burn alive.” 

Dex swallows as Nursey stops talking and he wants to say something but his mouth feels like it’s filled with cotton balls. Everything he thinks of seems wrong, seems so small compared to what Nursey just did.

There’s silence between them and Dex feels like for a few minutes, they are the only people breathing in the world, the only ones awake. 

“I don’t want you to burn alive,” Dex says and immediately regrets it because Nursey breaks into a chuckle. 

“It’s a figure of speech, Poindexter, don’t worry,” he laughs and Dex goes red all over again.

“I know that, you idiot, I just...I don’t want you to feel that way...with me. I want...I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I thought this was the only thing I’d get from you, the teasing and the...you know...fire or whatever.” 

“Fire or whatever, he says.” Nursey chuckles again. “It’s fine. It’s not like I didn’t enjoy it at least a little bit. It gave me some fuel for my poetry. And you know, you were right, I wasn’t paying attention when you threw that bludger my way. I was thinking about you.” 

“About me?” Dex asks.

Nursey shrugs, then winces a bit when he feels his shoulder sting. The pain isn’t gone yet, his bones not fully healed but he doesn’t want to think about it now. Not when he has Dex sitting right beside him, finally has him where he wants him to be. 

“Yeah...well...about the poem but the poem’s about you, so yeah...you. I think about you a lot.” 

Dex heart hammers in his chest, like an old machine coming to life and he isn’t sure if feeling so much at once hurts him or heals him. 

“I think about you a lot too. I wanted to tell you but I’m not good with words and there’s so much that I apparently still have to learn? And...it seems like I am not really good at showing that I like people either but for the record, Nursey, I really don’t hate you. Not even a little bit. I...I actually like you a lot,” Dex pressed out and lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

“Good, so, maybe we can start from there? Find a way to talk without turning it into a fight because to be honest, I’d really love to take you out on a date and hear more about that potion you wanted to throw at me?” 

Nursey grins at him sheepishly and Dex can’t help but groan. “Oh my god, that was a joke, I can’t believe you remember that. I...I don’t know what I was trying to say but it came out all wrong and well...I don’t know.”

“Well, I take it as flirting now that I know you don’t actually hate me. I mean, come on, you want to make me ‘go all dizzy and stuff’, I can’t wait to find out how you’re gonna do that.”

“Oh my god,” Dex groans again and lets his head sink into his heads. “You are the worst, seriously. I am never gonna live this down, am I?” 

Nursey laughs, then holds out his hand to Dex carefully. “I don’t know, let’s see how that date goes and maybe you will, right? But I’ve got a good feeling about it.” 

“Yeah,” Dex smiles as he takes and squeezes Nursey’s hand. “Yeah, me too.” 


End file.
